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Preparing Your Business For The Artificial Intelligence Revolution

CEO and Co-founder of Dbrain, a blockchain platform to collectively build AI apps.

Shutterstock

Today, when asked about artificial intelligence (AI), many people start painting science fiction inspired images of machine-ruled futures and robots completing manual tasks for human beings. To them, AI is only a concept, something that’s going to happen tomorrow.

In reality, artificial intelligence is already part of our lives. We use AI every day. It’s not only on your smartphones, laptops and cars, it’s everywhere.

Is 2018 The Year That The AI Revolution Goes Mainstream?

For the last few years, AI has entered the consciousness of every industry. It has become part of mainstream conversations. Businesses of all shapes and sizes are considering artificial intelligence to solve real business problems.

In the past, only the largest corporations could afford to invest in AI technology, but things are changing fast. In fact, the high-speed growth of AI makes it more likely that startups and younger businesses will be able to embrace the technology earlier than their corporate colleagues.

According to a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report, the global economy can see a potential contribution of $15.7 trillion from AI by the year 2030. China and North America will receive almost 70% of this potential global GDP growth.

Opportunities For AI Across Industries

Artificial intelligence can be used to solve problems across the board. AI can help businesses increase sales, detect fraud, improve customer experience, automate work processes and provide predictive analysis.

Industries like health care, automotive, financial services and logistics have a lot to gain from AI implementations. Artificial intelligence can help health care service providers with better tools for early diagnostics. The autonomous cars are a direct result of improvements in AI.

Financial services can benefit from AI-based process automation and fraud detection. Logistics companies can use AI for better inventory and delivery management. The retail business can map consumer behavior using AI. Utilities can use smart meters and smart grids to decrease power consumption.

The rise of chatbots and virtual assistants are also a result of artificial intelligence. Amazon’s Alexa, Google’s Home, Apple’s Siri and Microsoft’s Cortana are all using AI-based algorithms to make life better. These technologies will take more prominent roles in dictating future consumer behavior. Most of your future transactions will be completed with the help of an AI-based chatbot or virtual assistant.

Organizations Are Realizing The Potential Of AI

Implementing machine learning and AI is going to have a major impact on your organization’s efficiency. Intelligent systems can automate a great amount of your work and help reduce the risk of human errors. As time goes by, your systems will learn and get smarter. It will result in better outcomes.

Many businesses are starting to recognize the significant benefits and the potential competitive edge they can gain from using AI. There’s a growing interest from every industry about exploring the possibilities.

Organizations are already using artificial intelligence to make practical decisions. For example, Coca-Cola released Cherry Sprite based on their AI product analysis. Furthermore, the soft drink company is planning to create its own virtual assistant to incorporate into its vending machines.

Implementing AI In Your Organization

With so much conversation about AI, there is a real fear of losing out. Remember that it’s only the beginning of the AI revolution. According to Gartner 2018 CIO survey (registration required), only 4% of surveyed companies have invested and deployed an AI-based solution. The rest of the companies are at various planning stages. So if you don’t have an AI-based solution yet, don’t panic. It’s important to start looking at possible tools for your business. Here are a few strategies:

Figure Out Your Business Needs

Take a good look at your business and determine what strategic pain points can be eliminated using AI-based solutions. AI can provide predictive analytics for your business. It can help you automate tasks. Through examination, you can determine the right objectives for your business.

Understand The Risks

Any new technology comes with risks, but the only way to master the technology is through using it and learning from your mistakes. You can take initiatives with smaller scopes and critically evaluate every failure. It will help you understand your risk factors and give you data to make better decisions in the future.

Find Valuable AI Services

To implement AI solutions in the real world, you need AI developers. Due to the fast-growing AI market, developers are a scarce resource. Furthermore, in order to train and deploy the AI applications, developers need access to scalable and affordable computational infrastructure that can support the necessary AI processing. Also, they need raw data and specialists for data labeling, model output validation and more. Building this AI infrastructure is time-consuming and costly. Most companies simply can’t afford to hire 100 data mappers in-house and implement the infrastructure to support them, but there are services available that make AI app development accessible and affordable for businesses. So you don’t have to build the infrastructure and the human capital from scratch. You can use these services to fast-track your AI efforts.

Build The Right Background

To win in any technology war, you need the right people and the right culture. Hiring employees takes time. Building a good culture takes time. You need to invest resources to improve your chances. While it’s expensive to invest in new technology and new talent, it’s worth it. It can transform your business.